CN100378695C - Animation expert group servo system, data communication system and method between animation expert group and servo device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a multiple-tier architecture, including an animation expert group application program, multiple message queues and a servo software. The servo software controls an optical disc reader to read the information contained in the optical disc, and the servo software and the animation expert group application program share at least one data buffer as a memory space for reading data. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the application program of the animation expert group is used to receive and play the information from the server software through the bridge of multiple information queues.

Description

Animation expert group servo system, data communication system and method between animation expert group and servo device

technical field

The invention relates to a software communication, in particular to a software communication between an animation expert group layer and a servo layer.

Background technique

Today, a large number of animations are stored in different forms of optical discs, such as Laser Video Disc (VCD, VideoCompact Disc) and Digital Video Disc (DVD, Digital Versatile Disc). The traditional multimedia disc playback process involves two main steps, first reading data from the disc, and then decoding the data. The part of reading data is usually controlled by a servo chip. After the data is read out, a decoding chip is used to perform calculations to generate audio and video output.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic block diagram of a traditional playback architecture 100 . This playback framework 100 comprises a well-known Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA, Advanced Technology Attachment) bus 110, a servo chip 120 connected to the Advanced Technology Attachment bus 110, and an animation expert group (MPEG, Motion Picture Expert Group) decoding chip 130. As the controller of the optical disc reader 140, the servo chip 120 responds with the data on the optical disc according to the received Advanced Technology Access Programming Interface (ATAPI) command. A servo buffer 125 directly attached to the servo chip 120 serves as a data buffer for the optical disc. Under the playback structure 100 , the animation expert group decoding chip 130 is also connected to the advanced technology access bus 110 . Similarly, the animation expert group buffer 135 directly attached to the animation expert group decoding chip 130 also serves as a data buffer.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , which is an exemplary flowchart of the architecture 100 according to FIG. 1 . In step 210 , the animation expert group decoding chip 130 sends a data request command to the servo chip 120 through the advanced technology access bus 110 . Then, in step 220, the servo chip 120 commands the optical disc reader 140 to read the required data. Data read from the disc is stored in the servo buffer 125 at step 230 . Then in step 240 , the requested data is copied to the animation expert group buffer 135 via the ATS bus 110 . Finally, the animation expert group decoding chip 130 decodes the data in the animation expert group buffer 135 at step 250 and generates video and audio output.

In most cases, since other devices share the ATS bus 110, the transfer of data blocks may be delayed due to resource grabbing. In addition, because the data blocks exist in two different places at the same time, such as in the servo buffer 125 and the animation expert group buffer 135 respectively, the process of copying data wastes time and memory space. Furthermore, since the transfer rate of the advanced technology access bus 110 is different from that of the servo buffer 125 and the animation expert group buffer 135, it may be necessary to add an additional FIFO (First-InFirst-Out) buffer in practice. ) queue circuit.

Furthermore, if the size of the servo buffer 125 is equal to the required data block, the servo chip 120 must wait for the copying of the previous data before reading the data. Accordingly, it means that reading data and copying data cannot be performed at the same time, in other words, the entire process cannot be pipelined. Therefore, when a reading error occurs or the advanced technology access bus 110 is busy, the disc playing process will stall for a period of time.

To sum up, there is an urgent need for a software communication architecture to solve the above problems so as to enhance the competitiveness of the optical disc player industry.

Contents of the invention

In view of the above-mentioned background of the invention, in order to meet the needs of the industry, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a software communication between the animation expert group layer and the servo layer, so as to solve the above-mentioned goals that cannot be achieved by the traditional playback architecture.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a multiple-tier architecture, which includes an animation expert group application program, multiple message queues and a server software. An optical disc reader controlled by the servo software is used to read the information contained in the optical disc. The above-mentioned servo software shares at least one data buffer with the animation expert group application program as a memory space for reading data. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the animation expert group application program is used to receive and play the information from the server software through the bridge of multiple information queues.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the information contained in the optical disc is needed, the animation expert group application program sends a data request message to one of the plurality of message queues. Next, the queue of messages is sorted and received sequentially for this server software. According to the instruction of the data request information, the above-mentioned servo software controls the optical disk reader to read the information contained in the optical disk and store it in the above-mentioned data buffer. After the server software sends a response message to another message queue, the response message is also sorted and received by the animation expert group application program. After the animation expert group application program interprets the response information, it can obtain the required data in the above-mentioned data buffer.

Another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-tier architecture, which includes an application layer, an intermediary layer and a server layer. In the application program layer, a loading manager is included to issue data request command information for at least one display engine and one file system. The above intermediary layer includes at least two information queues such as a command queue and a completion queue. The command queue and the completion queue can be simple first-in-first-out queues, or some form of priority queues. Therefore, a servo software included in the servo layer is used to control an optical disc reader to read information contained in the optical disc. The above-mentioned servo layer and the application layer share at least one data buffer as a memory space for reading data. The above-mentioned multiple information queues serve as bridge communication between the above-mentioned application program layer and the server layer.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the information contained in the optical disc is required, the display engine or the file system will first notify the loading manager. Accordingly, these data requests will be uploaded to the manager for processing, prioritization and scheduling. Then, the load manager will send a command message to the command queue of the intermediary layer. In subsequent steps, the command information will be sent to the above-mentioned server software. According to the instruction of the command information, the servo software will control the optical disc reader to read the information contained in the optical disc and store it in the above-mentioned data buffer. Then, the servo software sends a completion message to the completion queue, indicating that the data contained in the optical disk has been read and stored in the data buffer. The completion information will be received by the loading manager first, and then delivered to the source of the related data request. Once the display engine or file system receives the completion message, the required data can be obtained in the data buffer.

The present invention utilizes at least one data buffer shared by multiple tasks or software layers at the same time, so as to save the time and memory space consumed by copying data in the prior art. In addition, the present invention also uses a message queue intermediary layer as a communication bridge between the application program layer and the server layer. Since the message queue intermediary layer can act as a pipeline, the application layer and the server layer at the front and rear ends can simultaneously submit data request information and corresponding response information. And because the size of the data buffer can exceed the amount of data required by the data request information, the memory space can be divided into the data buffer to accommodate multiple disc data at the same time; certainly, the present invention can also have a plurality of data buffers for simultaneously Store multiple disc data separately. Accordingly, the software architecture provided by the present invention can improve the efficiency of overall data transmission. In addition, in addition to the message queue intermediary layer, the application program layer and the server layer can also be processed by pipeline operation. Furthermore, if the present invention is implemented in an operating system with multi-threads, each layer can also achieve the effect of parallel processing of data in a multi-threaded manner. For example, the animation expert group layer can simultaneously send out data request information, extract response information, and obtain required data from the data buffer. Accordingly, at a certain moment, both the animation expert group layer and the servo layer are in a busy state, unlike the prior art servo chip and animation expert group decoding chip which need to wait for each other to complete the action and then idle. Finally, the framework provided by the present invention is quite suitable as an integrated multimedia playback chip system.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a traditional playback architecture;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an example of the architecture according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a software architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of one embodiment of Fig. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a software architecture according to another embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of one of the software architectures of Fig. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a software architecture according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of main component symbols]

100 Traditional Playback Architecture

110 advanced technology access bus

120 servo chip

125 servo buffers

130 animation expert group decoding chip

135 animation expert group buffer

140 disc reader

210~250 traditional playback process

300 software architecture

310 animation expert group app

More than 320 message queues

330 servo software

340 disc reader

350 data buffer

410~480 The process of an embodiment of the present invention

500 software architecture

510 load manager

512 display engine

514 file system

520 command queue

525 complete queue

530 servo software

540 CD Reader

550 data buffer

604~640 Flowchart of another embodiment of the present invention

700 software architecture

710 animation expert group app

720 plural pairs of message queues

721 command queue

722 complete queue

730 Servo Software

740 CD Reader

More than 750 data buffers

Detailed ways

The direction that the present invention discusses here is a software communication between the animation expert group layer and the servo layer. In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, detailed steps and components thereof will be set forth in the following description. Obviously, the practice of the present invention is not limited to specific details familiar to those skilled in software communication. The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail as follows, but in addition to these detailed descriptions, the present invention can also be widely implemented in other embodiments, and the scope of the present invention is not limited, subject to the following patent scope .

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a block diagram of a software architecture 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. This software architecture 300 is a multi-tier (multiple-tier) architecture, which includes an animation expert group layer, an intermediary layer and a servo layer. In this software architecture 300, at least one animation expert belonging to the animation expert group layer is included. Group application 310 . The animation expert group application program 310 can be a movie playing program, or can be a software manager, which can simultaneously handle multiple animation expert group data requirements from different software.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the intermediary layer includes a plurality of message queues 320 for receiving messages from the animation expert group layer and the servo layer. Similarly, the animation expert group layer and the servo layer can also obtain the information of the plurality of information queues 320 . In addition, the plurality of message queues 320 may be simple first-in first-out queues, or may be some form of priority queues. When it is a simple first-in-first-out queue, the information in the queue is prioritized based on its receiving time; when it is a certain form of priority queue, the priority of the information can be marked inside the information. In this embodiment, the plurality of message queues 320 can be subscribed by animation expert group layer, server layer or other software. When a message is received, the message queue 320 will notify its subscribers. Because message queue software is well known in the computer science community, those related message software that are applicable to the present invention will not be discussed.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the servo layer includes at least one servo software 330 , which controls at least one optical disc reader 340 , and through the optical disc reader 340 , the servo software 330 can read information contained in the optical disc. The servo software 330 shares the memory space of at least one data buffer 350 with the animation expert group application 310 . In addition, multiple message queues 320 can also share the data buffer 350 as a storage area for messages. In the present invention, the actual composition of the data buffer 350 may be a contiguous memory block, or may be discontinuous memory blocks formed in logical series. In fact, it is only necessary that the above-mentioned servo software 330 , animation expert group application program 310 and multiple information queues 320 can access the content of the data buffer 350 , and the present invention does not limit the number of the data buffer 350 .

In an example of this embodiment, the software architecture 300 can be implemented in a multi-tasking real-time operating system, in which each layer can be implemented as at least one task or a work group. In another example of this embodiment, the software architecture 300 can be implemented in an operating system with multiple threads, and each layer can be implemented as at least one thread or a group of threads that can execute simultaneously.

Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a schematic flowchart of the embodiment in FIG. 3 . First, at step 410 , a data request message sent by the animation expert group application 310 is sent to one of the plurality of message queues 320 . In step 420, after receiving the data request message, the message queue 320 will sort according to the receiving time of the message or its marked priority, that is, the sorting method will depend on the form of the message queue 320 . Then in step 430 , the data request information is retrieved for the information subscriber, that is, retrieved by the server software 330 . Likewise, no matter whether the message queue 320 is implemented by using a polling or a pushing mechanism, it is applicable to the present invention. After receiving the data request message, the servo software 330 will read the information on the optical disk according to the instruction of the data request message in step 440 and store it in the data buffer 350 . Furthermore, the data request information may include pre-configured space information in the data buffer 350 , related blocks on the disc, read retry times, and other useful parameter values related to step 440 . In other words, the present invention does not limit the content of this data request information.

As shown in FIG. 4 , after reading and storing the data, the server software 330 will send a response message to one of the plurality of message queues 320 in step 450 . Like the above-mentioned data request information, the present invention does not limit the content of the response information, which may include the storage location of the read data in the data buffer 350, the length of the read data, or any information that is helpful to the animation expert group application program 310 Other parameters. Then, in step 460, the response messages are sorted by the message queue 320 according to their receiving time or priority. In the following step 470 , the animation expert group application 310 extracts the response information from the message queue 320 . Finally, the animation expert group application 310 can obtain the required data in the data buffer 350 after interpreting the response message.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, since a plurality of information queues 320 can serve as pipeline operations (pipeline), the animation expert group layer and the servo layer at the front and rear ends can simultaneously propose data request information and corresponding response information; Or, since the size of the data buffer 350 can exceed the amount of data required by the data request information, the data buffer 350 can accommodate multiple disc data at the same time; certainly, the present invention can also have multiple data buffers for simultaneous Store multiple disc data. Therefore, the software architecture 300 provided by the present invention can achieve the effect of parallel data processing through pipeline operations, thereby improving the overall data transmission efficiency. If the present invention is implemented in an operating system with multi-threads, each layer can also achieve the effect of parallel processing data in a multi-threaded manner. For example, the animation expert group layer can send data request information, extract response information, and obtain required data from the data buffer 350 at the same time. Accordingly, at a certain moment, both the animation expert group layer and the servo layer are in the working state, unlike the servo chip 120 and the animation expert group decoding chip 130 in the prior art that need to wait for each other to complete the action and then idle.

Please refer to FIG. 5 , which is a schematic block diagram of a software architecture 500 according to another embodiment of the present invention. Like the embodiment of FIG. 3 , the software architecture 500 also includes an application layer, an intermediary layer and a server layer. In this embodiment, the application layer includes a loading manager 510 , a display engine 512 and a file system 514 , wherein the display engine 512 is a multimedia player program for displaying multimedia content contained in an optical disc. Display engine 512 may include animation experts and/or other compression and decompression functions for displaying multimedia content contained in the optical disc. File system 514 may also be used to process certain information contained in the optical disc. In addition to the display engine 512 and the file system 514, other applications may also require the information contained in the optical disc. The loading manager 510 provides a software gateway to manage all requests for information on the optical disc, issued by the display engine 512 and the file system 514 The demand will be sorted, packaged and scheduled through the loading manager 510 .

As shown in FIG. 5, the intermediary layer includes multiple message queues to receive messages from the application layer and the server layer. Similarly, the application program layer and the server layer can also obtain the information of the multiple message queues. In this embodiment, the intermediary layer includes a command queue 520 and a completion queue 525. The command queue 520 and the completion queue 525 can be simple first-in-first-out queues, or some form of priority queues. Because the above-mentioned message queue software is widely known in the computer science community, those related message software applicable to the present invention will not be discussed any more.

As shown in FIG. 5 , the above-mentioned servo layer includes at least one servo software 530 which controls at least one optical disc reader 540 , and through the optical disc reader 540 , the servo software 530 can read the information contained in the optical disc. The servo software 530 shares a memory space of a data buffer 550 with the display engine 512 and the file system 514 . In addition, multiple message queues 520 and 525 can also share the data buffer 550 as a storage area for messages.

In an example of this embodiment, the software architecture 500 can be implemented in a multi-tasking real-time operating system, in which each layer can be implemented as at least one job or a group of jobs that can be executed simultaneously . In another example of this embodiment, the software architecture 500 can be implemented in an operating system with multiple threads, and each layer can be implemented as at least one thread or a group of threads executing simultaneously.

Please refer to FIG. 6 , which is a schematic flowchart of the software architecture 500 shown in FIG. 5 . First at step 604, the load manager 510 receives a data request from the display engine 512 or the file system 514. In this step, the above-mentioned load manager 510 can prioritize, schedule, convert and/or process the data request Or any calculation to send a command message in the next step 608 . Next, in step 608 , a command message issued by the load manager 510 is sent to the command queue 520 . In step 612, all command messages in the command queue 520 are sorted according to their receiving time or other priority sorting methods. The servo software 530 will receive the command information in step 616 . According to the instruction of the command information, at step 620 , the servo software 530 reads the information contained in the optical disk and stores it somewhere in the data buffer 550 . Wherein, the command information may include the pointer of the pre-configured space of the data buffer 550 , the block of the optical disk, the number of read retries or any other parameters that can help the subsequent step 640 . In other words, the present invention does not intend to limit the content of the command information.

As shown in Figure 6, after reading data and storing, the servo software 530 will send a completion message to the above-mentioned completion queue 525 in step 624. Similarly, the present invention is not intended to limit the content of the completion message, which may include the data buffer The storage space of the area 550, the length of the read information, or other parameters that can help the above-mentioned display engine 512 or file system 514 receive data. Then proceed to step 628, and the completion queue 525 will be sorted according to its receiving time or other priority sorting methods. Then proceed to step 632 , the load manager 510 obtains the completion information from the completion queue 525 . In step 636, the load manager 510 must send the completion message to the source that issued the command message. In other words, the completion information will be sent to the display engine 512 or the file system 514 . Finally, in step 640 , after the display engine 512 or the file system 514 interprets the completion message, the required data can be obtained from the data buffer 550 .

In the present invention, since the command queue 520 and the completion queue 525 can serve as pipeline operations (pipeline), the loading manager 510 and the server layer at the front and rear ends can simultaneously provide data request information and corresponding response information; moreover, Because the size of the data buffer 550 can exceed the amount of data required by the data request information, the data buffer 550 can accommodate multiple disc data at the same time; certainly, the present invention can also have a plurality of data buffers to store multiple data simultaneously. Pen CD data. Therefore, the software architecture 500 provided by the present invention can improve the overall data transmission efficiency. Furthermore, if the present invention is implemented in an operating system with multi-threads, each layer can also achieve the effect of parallel processing of data in a multi-threaded manner. For example, the animation expert group layer can send data request information, extract response information, and obtain required data from the data buffer 550 at the same time. Accordingly, at a certain moment, both the animation expert group layer and the servo layer are in the working state, unlike the servo chip 120 and the animation expert group decoding chip 130 in the prior art that need to wait for each other to complete the action and then idle.

Please refer to FIG. 7 , which is a block diagram of a software architecture 700 according to another embodiment of the present invention. The software architecture 700 is similar to the software architecture 300 shown in FIG. 3 , which includes an animation expert group layer, an intermediary layer and a servo layer. In this software architecture 700, at least one animation expert group application program 710 belonging to the animation expert group layer is included; the intermediary layer includes a plurality of pairs of message queues 720 to receive information from the animation expert group layer and the servo layer, and each pair of message queues 720 includes A command queue 721 and a completion queue 722; the servo layer includes at least one servo software 730, which controls at least one optical disc reader 740, through which the optical disc reader 740, the servo software 730 can read the information contained in the optical disc. The servo software 730 shares the memory space of multiple data buffers 750 with the animation expert group application 710 . In addition, the plurality of message queues 720 can also share the multiple data buffers 750 as information storage areas.

In one example of this embodiment, the plurality of pairs of message queues 720 have a corresponding relationship with the above-mentioned multiple data buffers 750; that is, each pair of command queues 721 and completion queues 722 corresponds to one of the multiple data buffers 750 A data buffer 750.

In addition, in an example of this embodiment, the software architecture 700 can be implemented in a multi-tasking real-time operating system, in which each layer can be implemented as at least one task or a task that can be executed simultaneously group. In another example of this embodiment, the software architecture 700 can be implemented in an operating system with multiple threads, and each layer can be implemented as at least one thread or a group of threads executing simultaneously.

At a certain moment, the animation expert group application 710 sends a plurality of data request messages to a plurality of command queues 721 of the plurality of pair message queues 720 . At the same time, the servo software 730 simultaneously receives a plurality of data request information previously sent by the animation expert group application program 710 from a plurality of command queues 721, and reads the required plurality of information from the CD reader 740, and then sends The multiple pieces of information are stored in multiple buffers 750 corresponding to the above-mentioned multiple command queues 721, and finally send multiple response messages containing corresponding to multiple data request information to the multiple completion queues of the multiple pairs of message queues 720 722. The animation expert group application program 710 receives multiple response messages while sending multiple data request messages, and reads the plurality of pieces of information required by the multiple data request messages according to the multiple response messages.

The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the patent application of the present invention; all other equivalent changes or modifications that do not deviate from the spirit disclosed in the present invention should be included in the following patent applications within range.

Claims (10)

1. An animation expert group servo system applied to a multimedia CD player system, characterized in that it comprises: Multiple information queues, including a first queue and a second queue; An animation expert group module for sending a data request message to the first queue and receiving a response message corresponding to the data request message from the second queue; and a servo module, used for receiving the data request information from the first queue, and reading the information contained in an optical disc carried by an optical disc reader controlled by the servo module, and sending the corresponding data request information Respond to the second queue. 2. the animation expert group servo system as claimed in claim 1, is characterized in that, also comprises a data buffer that can be accessed jointly by this servo module and this animation expert group module, and this data buffer is stored with in the multimedia disc and Messages in the message queue. 3. The animation expert group servo system according to claim 2, wherein, after receiving the data request information, the servo module reads the information contained in the optical disc according to the instruction of the data request information, and reads the read information The disc information is stored in the data buffer, and the animation expert group module reads the disc information from the data buffer according to the response information. 4. The animation expert group servo system according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of information queues, the animation expert group module, and the servo module are respectively composed of threads that can be executed simultaneously. 5. A data communication system applied to a multimedia disc playback system, characterized in that the data communication system includes: a command queue; a complete queue; a loading manager, used for receiving a data request message from a request module, sending a command message to the command queue according to the data request message, and extracting a completion message corresponding to the command message from the completion queue; a servo module, used for receiving the command information from the command queue, reading the information contained in the optical disc from an optical disc carried by an optical disc reader controlled by the servo module, and sending the completion information including the corresponding command information to the completion queue; and A data buffer is used to store a plurality of pieces of information on the optical disc read by the servo module, and the loading manager can read the information on the plurality of optical discs from the data buffer according to the completion information. 6. The data communication system of claim 5, wherein said requirement module comprises a set selected from the following group: a file system that manages the file data of the optical disc; and One of the display engines for displaying the animation expert group data contained in the CD-ROM. 7. The data communication system of claim 5, wherein the servo module and the request module can jointly access the data buffer. 8. A data communication method between an animation expert group and a servo device applied to a multimedia disc playback system, characterized in that, the data communication method includes: Provide a plurality of pairs of message queues, wherein each pair of message queues includes a command queue and a completion queue; an animation expert group module sends a plurality of data request messages to the plurality of command queues of the plurality of pair message queues; A servo module receives the plurality of data request messages from the plurality of command queues, and is used to read a plurality of pieces of information required by the plurality of data request messages from an optical disc loaded by an optical disc reader controlled by the servo module, and sending a plurality of response messages corresponding to the plurality of data request messages to the plurality of completion queues of the plurality of pair message queues; and The animation expert group module receives the plurality of response messages while sending out the plurality of data request messages, and reads the plurality of pieces of information required by the plurality of data request messages according to the plurality of response messages. 9. The data communication method according to claim 8, wherein the animation expert group module and the servo module are respectively composed of threads that can be executed simultaneously. 10. The data communication method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of storing the plurality of pieces of information requested by the plurality of data request messages in a plurality of data buffers by the servo module, wherein the plurality of data The buffer is shared by the servo module and the animation expert group module.

Images